Monthly Archives: June 2016

With an understated yet palpable sense of destiny, Ervin Peter, host of the Starfall Acting Contest, announced “It’s time to move to Round Two.” Inaugurated in October of 2015, 2LJ Productions launched an acting contest, the first of its kind, with the aim of identifying a new star to play the lead in the upcoming feature drama Starfall.

“In the second round, we’ll find out how a given actress embodies her character”, says Ervin. It’s the next step in finding the talent needed to play the key roles in the female-centric drama. When asked why he chose to create a story that centers around women, Ervin remarks “We have a great deal of talent on the men’s side – DiCaprio, Downey, Bale, and others, but on the women’s side, talent of that caliber is far more rare, and I’d like to see women reach parity with men in this, and every other regard.”

In the first round, aspiring actresses were asked to perform three monologues from classic stage plays. Of those, the actresses displaying the greatest talent and potential to bring out the particular personality traits of the characters in Starfall were selected to advance to the second round. “It’s difficult to get a feel for an actor from a headshot alone,” says Ervin, the starting point for most castings, “and when each actor has their own unique reel, it’s difficult to compare them against each other, which is why we chose to have each actor perform the same three monologues in the first round – it allows us to do an apples to apples comparison between all actors.”

In the second round, the selected actresses will be reading lines from “Starfall” in a traditional audition type setting. “But what will make this experience unique for the audience,” says Ervin, “is that we’ll be filming the behind-the-scenes goings on. Everyone will get to see the deliberations that go on in the casting room after an actor steps out the door.” Will it be like the Kardashians reality show? “Not a chance,” says Ervin, “our product will be interesting for all the right reasons, and we’re going to keep things very positive.”

When asked what qualities he’s looking for, Ervin says “We’re searching for that special actress who has the type of charisma that draws you to her like gravity. We’re looking for someone who feels beautiful, and who has ultimate confidence in her mind an body.” In other words, someone with the talent and attributes to be Hollywood’s next great leading lady. “If we can give the world the next Meryl Streep or the next Jennifer Lawrence,” says Ervin, “then my wildest expectations for this contest will have been exceeded.”

Following the conclusion of the second round, the top candidates will advance to the third and final round, which will be a live audition in which the actresses will be acting out scenes from Starfall alongside other actors. “We’re going to be very thorough, because we have high expectations of the actors, and high expectations for ourselves, as well as for the production.”

“I hope that our new casting process will shake things up,” says Ervin, “all processes evolve and improve over time, and there’s no reason for the process whereby actors are selected for roles should be any different.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.